Demanding Sacrifice: War and Negotiation in Sri Lanka
Philipson, L., & Lanka, S. S. A. o. S. (1998). Conciliation Resources.
“Demanding Sacrifice: War and Negotiation in Sri Lanka is a book written by Jeremy Armon and Liz Philipson, discussing war and peace in Sri Lanka. The authors make a comparison between the war in Sri Lanka and the Yugoslavian situation to illustrate the complexity of peacemaking process. They also analyse the failure of the Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war. The Indian government has invested more than 1 billion dollars in, and sent troops to, Sri Lanka in peace-making projects. However, these efforts have failed to bring any real peace to the region. The authors try to categorize the violence in Sri Lanka as sporadic communal or ethnic violence including terrorism and civil war. The authors blame the Indian government for overusing violence, as it has caused terror among citizens, which has lead to the failure of peacemaking projects. In the second part of the book, the authors advise on potential solutions to the conflicts. They argue that the fact that Tamil people have been exploited and marginalized for a long time, with insufficient political representation, should be considered the main reason for the conflicts having broken out. The authors propose meetings between different ethnic groups, and negotiations between the government and marginalized groups such as the Tamil, to promote the political participation of Tamils, potentially thus solving the country’s problems.